Tuesday, October 28, 2014

I know some of you have been wanting to hear Channing's birth story and I wanted to blog about it before I forget the details so here it is.

Just a little background detail: Marlie was 8 days early, and so I was REALLY hoping that Channing would decide to vacate the premises before her due date, also. But it wasn't lookin' good... I went in for a scheduled OB appointment on the 19th of august and my midwife said I was only 2cm dilated, which I could live with. I mean, things can progress a lot in a week, right?? WRONG, I went in for my last scheduled OB appointment on the 26th of august after I had told my midwife that I would LOVE to see her face before then... she said that I was STILL only 2cm dilated, at which point I could feel my blood actually start to boil because I did NOT want to be pregnant anymore!!!! It had only been the H-O-T-T-E-S-T summer EVER!!! And I had spend the good majority of my pregnancy being hot, sweaty, and super cranky... so for her to tell me that I had made no progress - yeah I was a little mad. And then she went on to tell me that if I was still undelivered on september 1st (which was my original due date), she would then schedule an induction for september 4th. SEPTEMBER 4TH!!! thats PAST my due date... thats not happening chicka... she was nice enough to strip my membranes before I went home that day and immediately I started contracting. They were only braxton hicks contractions but that didn't last long.
Throughout the day they started to get more and more painful. I didn't go to bed until about 10pm that night and I didn't get much sleep. Every time a contraction hit I had to get out of bed and get on my hands and knees and breath through them. So I called the hospital around 1:30 in the morning to ask them (this will make some of you laugh but I will explain...) if they had any rooms open if I were to come in. Now, before you start thinking that I'm the weirdest person ever, I asked them that because when I was in labor with Marlie, they DIDNT have any rooms open for me so I labored in an exam room... so luxurious... the nurse also sounded a little confused as to why I would be asking that and so I gave her the whole story about my previous pregnancy. She then assured me that they had pleanty of room for me and to come on in and they would get me set up. I waited another hour and a half to go in until I just couldn't stand it anymore.
I got to the hospital around 3am and a nice asian lady named Mollie got me situated in my room and jammed an I.V. thing in my arm, she checked to see how dilated I was after she was finished getting me settled and said that I was at 4cm... FINALLY some progress. They had a shift change at 6am and I got a new nurse named Lorinda. At first I really didn't like her. She made me change positions every 20 minutes to try and get the baby's head as far down into the birth canal as possible. Another background detail: I didn't have an epidural with Marlie and I wanted to try to go without one again this time around so the changing position thing really sucked because all I wanted to do was stay in bed and die. She made me get on my knees and elbows and stay there for 20 minutes, and let me tell you, when you are already having a lot of back labor pains, thats the last position you want to be in - your back already hurts so it feels super awesome when your already huge, heavy belly is pulling on your back on top of that. Then she made me sit on one of those fitness ball things and rock back and forth, which sucked but not as much as being on all fours. And then she had me walk the halls for a bit.
I let ken sleep (well sort of), I felt really bad that I had kept him up all night....I guess you could say I was living vicariously through him because at this point I was pushing 24 hours without sleep. The nurse finally let me get back in the bed and then told me that I was progressing nicely. She said she would break my water and then let me dilate a little more before I could start pushing. I then called my mom, who came over at 3 in the morning to stay with Marlie while we went to the hospital, and let her know that they were going to break my water and then she could probably head over to the hospital. After she broke my water, the really fun contractions started coming, and I'm not talking about these contractions coming in for a NICE visit, they were coming in to pick a freaking FIGHT! I feel like the contractions this time around were a little bit more intense than they were with marlie... but either way, they really sucked. It didn't take long before I was feeling the need to push, and at that point my mom walked in with Marlie and the nurse said that I was ready to start pushing so my mom took marlie to the waiting room while we got ready to have a baby!
The nurse called the midwife, who works in an office just across the parking lot, and within a few minutes she was in my room. I only pushed for probably 10 minutes, during which I almost got charlie horses in both legs and my hands went numb and tingly (not sure why), but Emily (the midwife) asked if I wanted to touch the baby's head and I said no because, lets face it, I just wanna focus on getting this kid OUT! A few more pushes and she placed baby Channing on my chest. Ken was crying, I was crying, Channing was crying. She weighed 6lbs 13oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. We are so excited that she is finally here!
While the nurses were cleaning me up, the midwife, who thought I was pretty hilarious, said to the nurses "well ladies, I think its safe to say that Nikki probably doesn't want to take her placenta home with her and eat it." They all laughed and I looked at her and said "Ew sick! Do people really do that?" Apparently they do... and thats gross (sorry if any of you took yours home and ate it... but seriously... thats freaky.)
The rest of the day was spent resting and getting to know our new addition. Ken went home with marlie that night. Now, remember that I have been awake since around 9am Tuesday morning, Channing was born at 10:50am Wednesday morning, I didn't sleep much after she was born, so here I was SO ready sleep. And of course Channing was ready to party. They dont have a nursery in the hospital because they want you to keep the baby in the room with you. So since Channing didnt want to sleep for more than five minutes at a time, I was having to rock her in the chair, walk around with her, do whatever I could to get her to go to sleep and stay asleep... which she wouldnt do. And I dont know if any of you have been without sleep for 48 hours but its not fun. Every time I blinked my eyes, my body thought I was going to sleep. So I decided that walking around with the baby was no longer safe, so I rocked her in the chair, and then had to fight the urge to sleep so I wouldnt drop her so I didn't feel safe having her anywhere but on my chest while I was laying in the bed - which they didnt want me to do either. So i was really not in a fun position. My nurse came in while i was laying in the bed with the baby and i said "i know im not supposed to have her in the bed with me but i REALLY need to sleep and she wasnt letting me" and my sweet, sweet nurse then told me that she would take her for a little while so that i could get some rest. 3 hours later she brought Channing back into the room! I was so grateful for her kindness, i thought i was gonna die if i went any longer without sleep. The next morning i couldnt WAIT to get home. I was SO done staying in the hospital, we had to watch some videos and then they sent us on our way! we are so happy to have Channing in our family. She is now 2 months old and has so much personality!

Saturday, March 29, 2014

*Marlie is completely potty trained (don't remember if i mentioned that in my last post) and we are so excited about that.
*Marlie turned 4 in june
*Nikki turned 26 in june
*I competed in a horse show for the first time in probably 10 years... and i totally SUCKED because i was so nervous haha
*we went to an amusement park in couer d' alene (spelling?) with my parents and it was a ton of fun!
*We picked lots of raspberries and blueberries with the intent of having them last through the winter and marlie at them all before the winter even started...
*I photographed 3 weddings and a bunch of seniors and families last summer. One couple flew me to idaho to do their pictures. it was a TON of fun!
*marlie started pre-school at the beginning of november
*we went BACK to idaho for a week to have thanksgiving with my family
*we spent Christmas here at home with family and friends and it was so nice not to be traveling this year!
*WE FOUND OUT IN DECEMBER THAT WE ARE EXPECTING OUR 2ND BABY!! WOO HOO! DUE SEPTEMBER 1ST 2014
*Ken turned 31 in february
*I had my first ultrasound in feb. everything looks great
*i got a new camera! i got the canon 6D and i totally LOVE it
*we find out what we are having on tuesday. we are pretty excited!

thats all i can think of so far. we don't live SUPER exciting lives but we do occasionally do some fun things. Marlie will be starting kindergarden this september, shortly after we have the baby so it will be a transition in many ways for our family. My parents are working on moving back to the portland area to be closer to us and other family member which will be so nice. we miss them lots when we are not with them. This summer we hope to do some fun things now that i am not taking care of the pool (which didn't allow for very much vacation time since i had to test chemicals and close the pool everyday for four months). we are hoping to go to the beach and even to the redwood forest so it will be really exciting to get some picture with my new camera. my brother dan is getting married at the end of june and my sister anna is graduating high school at the end of may so me and marlie will be going to idaho for both of those events and ken will just be going for the wedding. so we have lots of things we want to do. hopefully it won't take me a year to update this thing again!